2 CORINTHIANS 10

Heart Issues
I do not want to boast or find my identity in how well I minister. I have been told recently that I have the “skills” to build a big youth ministry. I have struggled through that as I am grateful for the talents that God has given me, but I can never trust in my “skills” for they would only puff me up. I can only trust in the Lord for He opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. He will work in students’ lives as He sees fit. I will be faithful and try to figure out ways to reach out to students, but my trust must fall all in His power and His grace to change lives. I am so thankful for the talents He has entrusted in me and I want to use it all for His glory. I pray that I will continue to be able to put myself aside and give God praise even when He works through other people to lead a movement to Jesus. I hate the snippets of jealousy that I see sometimes still arising in my sinful nature that wants God to work through me and only me. My desire is to see God praised and glorified independent of where it comes from. I am excited to see what God will do as He is molding me to care less about my own glory and more about His.

Notes
-This chapter speaks a great deal to boasting and commending ourselves. Paul speaks to the Corinthians that boasting is not good and only boasting in the Lord is worthwhile. Paul hopes that more of the men he has led to Christ will multiply their faith and continue his work. It is no threat to Paul, it only frees Paul up to continue to lead in new places. This is the ideal of the great commission and the reason we make disciples and not converts.
-Paul’s war talk is pretty awesome. Paul is not talking about physical war, but spiritual and mental. The battles that they fought were ones of bringing down the philosophies of the day and exalting Christ. They wanted to make every thought obedient to Christ which is the ultimate victory in life. This war is a long fought one that doesn’t seem to be ever fully won until we go home.
-At the same time that we should not commend ourselves and brag, we also should not slander a brother in Christ. We have come to know the same Jesus and belong to Him. Paul has spoken repeatedly in 1 & 2 Corinthians against divisions in the Church. We do not boast in ourselves, for as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:10 – by the grace of God, I am what I am.